I thought second semester of senior year would be stress-free. That is, until the Whitman senior girls’ prom dress Facebook group was created.    

The point of the group is for girls to post their final prom dress to avoid repeats, which is a smart idea and has been done in the past. But, the group was created in the beginning of March and girls had already posted their dresses within the first couple hours. The pressure immediately began to set in.

I hadn’t even started searching for a dress by this time, but by that night I had at least six tabs up with various websites for online prom dress shopping. I didn’t get any of my homework done.

I’m pretty sure most senior girls were going through similar stages of panic, because within a few days it seemed as if the whole group had chosen their dresses already.

This group is unintentionally intensifying the drama and stress over prom. Now, that’s all girls are talking about, and the stress to urgently find a dress is real. I had at least 20 notifications from the group within a two hour time period from girls frantically posting dresses before someone got to them.

Moreover, instead of posting their final dress choices, girls felt pressure to post one they simply liked and ordered, but were not quite sure about. It just limits the options for us girls who do not have a prom dress yet.

Some girls have even posted different dresses to get opinions on the selection. Although it’s nice to get outside opinions on a dress, again, it’s not the point of the group and only stresses the situation a bit further.

This group would’ve worked so much better if it was created later when girls had the chance to actually search and try on dresses. Yes, it did remind me that I need to start thinking about it, but it’s just not being used for the intended purpose.